


we're gonna live, forever

by kissgirls, xadia



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Almost Drowning, Canon Compliant, Cute, F/F, Fighting Monsters, Girlfriends - Freeform, Intense, Lesbians, Love, Near Death Experiences, Tattoos, im shit at tagging oops, they're lesbians harold!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-08 17:36:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16433849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kissgirls/pseuds/kissgirls, https://archiveofourown.org/users/xadia/pseuds/xadia
Summary: “I thought- I thought we were going to die. In the water. Like- like my biggest fear coming to life. Instead, it just brought me closer to you.”-------------There's a slight, unplanned detour on the journey to Xadia.





	we're gonna live, forever

**Author's Note:**

> we've been working on this for like.... more than a month. finished at the legendary number of 6969. we hope you enjoy!

 It’s raining.

Water pours down their faces in cold rivulets, collecting in their eyelashes and blurring their eyes. As they trekked, the dirt slowly turned into a gooey, muddy mess and their progress was slowed tenfold. It was all Claudia could do to keep up with the rest. Her bag, to her dismay, was soaked through and her dress had mud caked into the thick fabric all along the bottom.

Rain had been pouring down for days without end. The bleak grey of the sky hung low, fog and mist drifting through the air, making it even harder to see. The traveling companions called to one another, making sure the others were close enough to hear and kept trekking uphill until they couldn’t anymore. The muted calls of her companions and the faint roar of the Xotiko River crashing and churning at the base of the mountains were constant drones in the back of her head.

Claudia and Soren had been with the three for a little over a month now, trekking over the human side of the continent and towards Xadia. It was… an interesting alliance, especially after Claudia and Soren were faced with the true horrors of who their father was. Soren, it seems, was taking it easy. Claudia still couldn’t believe it.

Well. She did. Kind of. It’s that kind of belief that’s backed by too many facts to dispute, but at the edge of your mind you still scream it can’t be, it just can’t be.

Viren was her father. He was her only parent; he was the man who raised her. No matter what happened, no matter how much evil he was capable of doing, Claudia would always struggle to understand. She didn’t understand how the same man that taught her how to swim and smiled at her so warmly as she practiced her first spell could be so willing to cast aside his son’s life like that, but the cold, crushing truth was: her father would let Soren die for a mere dragon egg without batting an eye.

Claudia couldn’t live with that.

Just thinking about it made her want to throw up.

Claudia peers up the foggy slope stretching before her, wrinkling her nose as she saw the damp, sharp rocks looming out of the mist. The path was becoming increasingly more treacherous as they hiked, the rain sending floods of water cascading down the slope and slipping them up.

“Maybe we should try going further down?” Callum asks dubiously, yelling over the rain. He scrutinizes the dangerous path ahead of the group. “I think a trail that’s not filled with massive, spiky rocks is gonna be safer.”

Rayla pauses, her gaze sweeping over the unstable trail. “Fine,” she says with a frustrated huff. Her brow twists into a slight frown. “We’ll travel closer to the river. We need to be careful about flooding.”

The humans take hesitant, careful footsteps as they pick their way down the slope. Ahead of them, Rayla lightly hops from rock to rock without missing a beat. Claudia hears Soren grumble about elven agility at least three times as Rayla gracefully jumped over the thick, cold pools of mud that they had to struggle through.

“Watch out!” Callum cries out suddenly, his voice panicked as he lunged to grab the collar of Ezran’s jacket, just barely stopping him from tumbling down the slope.

Soren steps closer to Ezran, a hand going to his shoulder to steady him. “Be careful,” Soren advises, “it’s going to get a lot more dangerous around here if the rain doesn’t stop. Claudia, is there anything you can do to help us?”

Claudia shakes her head ruefully. “Not since the last time you asked. I only have a couple of spells, but those have a high price and can only protect one person. We have to continue unaided by magic unless we find some sort of magical creature I can perform magic with.”

Soren turns away, cursing. “Fine,” he says. “If anyone thinks they’re about to fall, tell Rayla or me.”

The thick cloth of her soaking dress feels as heavy as Soren’s armor as Claudia grapples and scrambles down the muddy, swollen ground, her fingers scrabbling for any sort of handhold. Several minutes passed like that, the rain growing worse as they found a mostly stable path to trek across. The trail is thin and covered in brambles that tear her skin and her clothing, drawing shallow lines across her face that leak ruby blood.

“What’s that noise?” Ezran asks, his voice weak and quiet in the torrential rain slamming against the ground.

Claudia cocks her head, trying to hear what Ezran was talking about. A faint roar is echoing in the back of her head, churning, angry, and ceaseless. Looking down the slope, she faintly sees a shape through the gloom of the mist that makes her breath freeze in her chest.

It was Xotiko, one of the greatest rivers of all the continents, the great divider that separates Xadia from the southern human kingdoms.

Xotiko is just fifteen feet away from them through thick, dense forest, swollen, massive, _furious_.

Gallons of water, more than Claudia has ever seen in her life, battles and froths, hissing, pushing and crashing. The sheer force of the river as it thunders down the valley makes Claudia flinch back, stepping further away from the river.

Looking around, Claudia sees that her companions were also seeing Xotiko for the first time in this state.

“We need to get away from the river!” Soren yells, his voice hoarse and rough. “It’s too dangerous!”

The rest of them nod and begin to make their way up the same slope that they had just descended. Claudia bites her lip, frowning and holding back a growl as she discovered that climbing up the mountain was immensely harder than descending it was.

The sheets of water begin to grow thicker, the sheer amount of water washing over the slope pushing them back towards the Xotiko.

Claudia felt her heart miss a beat as she heard a hoarse yell come from Rayla’s direction. Whipping around, she saw the elf standing frozen as a wave of water crashed towards them.

“What’s she doing?” Claudia yells at Ezran as they battled their way through the torrents of rain. “Why’s she just standing there?”

Ezran turns around to see Rayla’s petrified form. “Oh no,” he wails. “Rayla’s terrified of water!”

Claudia bites her lip. “Rayla!”

Rayla doesn’t move. The water starts to build up at her feet, the angry edges of the Xotiko beginning to rise, snapping and churning near her feet.

Ezran begins to trudge towards her, his short legs struggling to find stable footing on the soaking ground. “Rayla, come on!” He calls, heedless of the danger he is placing himself in.

Claudia felt her stomach drop as she watches. As Ezran slips again, she makes up her mind and runs toward him.

“Ezran, you go with Soren and Callum. Soren can carry Bait in this rain. I’ll get Rayla,” she yells and drops her bag on the ground, her throat becoming hoarse as she attempts to be heard over the pounding rain. Ezran pouts but listens to her directions. Soren all but shoves Bait into Ezran’s arms as soon as he possibly could, and guides him and Callum higher, hopefully towards a shelter of some sort. Claudia turns her attention to Rayla.

The water is rising quickly, surging between the elf and Claudia, and Rayla scuttles backward as it tries to lap at her feet. She looks up as if a spell had been shattered and Claudia makes her way towards her.

“Rayla!” Claudia calls. She nearly slips in the mud. “Come on, it’s too dangerous out here.”

Rayla’s head whips up, her eyes wide and gleaming with fear. “I can’t! I can’t swim!”

Claudia’s jaw drops. “You- You’re an assassin- you’re literally a feared, elven assassin and you can’t swim!?” She asks incredulously.

“Just because I’m an assassin doesn’t mean I’m able to swim!”

Claudia takes a deep, deep breath. “Okay, you know what? Just. Don’t fall in. I’m coming over.”

Rayla nods. Claudia moves through the mud, reaching the edge of where the water has flooded around Rayla, and holds out her hand, reaching over as far as she can. “You’re going to have to try and jump, okay? Take my hand.”

The elf reaches but isn’t quite able to reach Claudia’s hand. She takes a timid step forwards, and then another.

And then she slips.

And then someone screams as Rayla slips into the water.

Claudia takes a deep breath of air and jumps in after her without a second thought.

The water is freezing when Claudia hits it. At first, it’s a shock, and she wants nothing more than to jump right back out, but she forces herself to stay focused. Opening her eyes is hard, too, but she catches sight of Rayla quickly. She’s not far ahead, jerking around quickly as if trying to float back up, but it doesn’t work. Her movements get slower and slower, her hair swirling around her as bubbles and currents seethed and dragged her further down. Claudia spurs forward, grabs one of Rayla’s jerking arms, and pushes upwards to the surface. Her dress drags behind them, making everything slower, and Claudia wishes she hadn’t dived in like this.

But the water carries them forward and up, far more forward than Claudia had meant to go. She doesn’t see the rock until it's too late.

Claudia hits the rock hard and the world fades away around her, the press of Rayla clinging to her waist the last thing she felt as blackness overcame the furious hissing cold of the river currents.

 

\--------------------------------------------------

 

When Claudia comes to, she’s warm.

Her head aches, especially when her fingers lightly touch the spot that hit the rock. There’s a small bump that makes her uneasy, but it’s not too swollen, thankfully. Adjusting to the light is hard- it’s bright and hot like her face is right next to a fire-

Oh. That’s because it is.

Claudia scoots far back from the fire and takes a good look around her. She’s in a cave- with a high ceiling that looms over her. A cool breeze floats through the air from the entrance of the cave where rain still pours outside, slightly calmer, thrumming against the ground like a gentle drumbeat. Claudia shivers and inches closer to the fire again.

On the other side of the fire sits Rayla, staring at her. After a moment, Claudia notices she’s shaking, her long fingers digging into arms and knuckles white with the pressure.

“Oh,” the elf says. “You’re awake.”

Claudia nods uncertainty. “I’m awake,” she says dumbly. Watching the way that Rayla shudders, her hands jittering against the stone floor as if Rayla didn’t want to be in her own skin, Claudia asks, “Are you okay, Rayla?”

Rayla lets out a sarcastic laugh. “No. Not really.”

Claudia hesitates, feeling awkward. She had been traveling with Rayla for over a month now and had made peace with her and her quest even before then, but that didn’t necessarily mean that they were friends. They had traveled and fought together, saved each other’s lives many different times, but that didn’t mean that she knew how to comfort Rayla as she sits, shuddering in the dark.

That didn’t mean she couldn’t try.

Cautiously, like approaching a tense animal, Claudia scoots herself around the fire closer to the shaking elf, fully aware of lilac eyes following her every movement. When she’s all but a hair away from Rayla, she stops. Hesitantly, she reaches out a hand and rests it as gently as she can on Rayla’s shoulder.

Rayla tenses. Claudia considers removing her hand, but Rayla doesn’t move away from it. She doesn’t exactly relax either, but Claudia figures that’s better than getting her hand sliced off by one of Rayla’s sharp blades.

“It’s okay,” Claudia hears herself say. Rayla’s still shaking hard, but she’s taking in breaths of air in an attempt to calm herself. Claudia’s thumb rubs comforting circles on Rayla’s shoulder. “You’re out now. You didn’t drown, you’re out of the water, and you got me out, too. It’s alright now. Deep breaths.”

She says more- almost like a stream of consciousness, just filled with comforting words that blend together. Rayla’s shaking gets less violent, remarkably, but there’s still a slight tremor that Claudia hears in Rayla’s voice as the elf takes in a deep, deep breath and tries to pull herself together. Claudia doesn’t even notice when she stops talking- only when the fire crackles loudly and one of the logs falls does she notice at all.

Rayla’s staring at the fire with hard eyes. It’s quiet, except for the crackle of the fire and the pitter-pattering of the rain outside, and Claudia wonders how long it’s been since they were separated from the others. Had it been very long? Hours? Minutes? Was Soren keeping the princes safe, or were they out there looking for them in the storm? Did they even know they were gone?

“You’ve got to be cold,” Rayla interrupts the silence. Her voice shakes a little, which makes Claudia want to say ‘well, what about you?’. She doesn’t. Instead, she regards her wet clothes that make her shiver every time a breeze brushes over her back, and shrugs.

“A little, I guess, yeah.”

Claudia watches Rayla bite her lip from in the corner of her eye. Rayla shifts away from her a little as if making room. “Here, take this spot closer to the fire. I’m mostly dry anyway-”

“No, it’s alright. You need it more than I do.” Claudia stands up from her spot on the floor. “I’ll just shed a little.”

“I’m sorry, you’ll what-”

Claudia peels her dress off without another word.

Below the outer layer of her dress, Claudia is wearing a skin-tight half-shirt made of the same silken fabric as her dress but thinner and a pair of thick leggings. The black top has almost nothing on her back, only golden ribbons crisscrossing her back holds the fabric in place. The high collar of the crop top hugs her neck gracefully, circling all the way around it.

Rayla gapes.

Claudia turns around, the outer layer of her dress dangling limply from her arms. “Huh?” She asks, dropping the dress. “What’s wrong? Why are you making that face? Is this some weird elf thing?”

Rayla’s jaw snaps closed, her expression astonished.

“It’s not like I’m completely undressed! I’m in a crop top and pants, it’s not being immodest or anything,” Claudia says, unsure if moonshadow elves are weird about clothing.

Rayla blinks again, her eyes wide and cheeks flaming red. A brilliant, scarlet blush is burning up her neck and on her ears. “No- no, no, it’s nothing, you know, just a, a moonshadow elf thing I guess… y- yeah,” she stammers.

Claudia laughs softly. “That’s cute,” she says. Another choked sound comes from Rayla’s direction, but now that Claudia knows it was an elf thing, she ignores it. Reaching up, she stretches, relishing the feeling of not having heavy, wet cloth covering her skin. She begins to tie up her hair, setting a few of the shorter strands around her face fall out of the loose bun.

 _Meep_.

Claudia turns around as a small noise echoes around the cave. Looking down, she sees Rayla, still bright red. “Was that you?” She asks. Rayla shakes her head furiously, but she looks guilty.

Claudia frowned. “Huh. You elves really are strange ones.”

She turns, and she swears she can hear Rayla mutter ‘you have no idea’ under her breath. Claudia resists the urge to chuckle. She picks up and folds up her still soaked-to-the-bone dress and looks around for her bag to store it in, only to remember she had put it down to jump after Rayla. Shit. Hopefully, Soren would have grabbed it.

Hopefully.

There’s a small gasp from where Rayla still sits, doing her moonshadow elf thing, and Claudia turns questioningly without thinking. Rayla’s eyes are glued to her back, and it takes Claudia a moment to realize why.

“What is…” Rayla swallows thickly and Claudia raises an eyebrow. “What is that? On your back?”

A small, sad smile pulls at Claudia’s lips. She can’t see it, but she knows what Rayla’s talking about- what she’s staring at so intensely. Claudia reaches over her shoulder as if she can touch it and tell where the ink starts an ends. “Just a tattoo. Got it after one of my first lessons with my dad.”

Something tugs at her heart. It feels a lot like regret. A little shame, too.

Claudia has several tattoos- some that appear magically, a few that weren’t- but this one… holds a special place in her heart, even if it’s in a place she can’t see. It’s something she doesn’t think she can ever let herself forget.

Rayla’s inevitable question comes: “Why a unicorn?”

Claudia feels like sighing. She doesn’t- instead, she fingers the wet fabric of her dress that still sits in her hands, and wills up the courage to tell her. The courage doesn’t come easily.

“It, um,” Claudia begins, wincing at the softness of her voice. She clears her throat, tosses the dress to the ground, and sits down next to Rayla, facing her and crossing her legs. Rayla watches her as she does it, and it makes it that much harder for Claudia to start up again. “It was my- my first. My first kill for dark magic.”

Claudia hears Rayla’s sharp intake of breath, but her eyes are now glued to her legs, unable to look at Rayla in the eye. She curses herself. She had sat like this specifically to show Rayla…. something. That she was strong enough to admit it? That she was sorry? That she owned up to her actions and regretted it more than she could say?

Rayla doesn’t say anything. The quiet gets to be unbearable- Claudia feels like she can hear the gears turning in Rayla’s head, all of the bad that’s bound to be thought of, and finds the words tumbling out.

“My dad- he wanted me to start out big. He wanted me to see what a big spell felt like from the get-go. He- he tried to get Soren to do it, but Soren refused. He didn’t like it- it made him feel squeamish, I guess, but as a child, I didn’t-” Claudia takes a deep breath- “I didn’t like it, but my dad gave me this- this look. Like he just… I don’t know. I knew, if I did it, he’d be proud of me.”

Her hands grip onto her legs.

“So I… he gave me a dagger, and I took its life.”

Rayla doesn’t react. Claudia can feel her eyes on her. Her heart feels heavy with memories- of the way the dagger had felt in her hand, of the way her hands were covered in red, of the way her heart twisted and the promise she made to herself that day. But, her heart also felt lighter, in a way. Like sharing helped.

Claudia still doesn’t look up.

“I got the tattoo not that long ago,” she continues, “to… _remember_ , I guess. That power like that comes at a high price.”

There’s a lump in her throat that she didn’t expect to be there. She blinks away the stinging of her eyes- god, when did it get so dusty- and a hand reaches out tentatively, taking Claudia’s hand and holding onto it. Claudia’s heart jumps. When she looks up, Rayla squeezes her hand but doesn’t say anything.

She doesn’t need to.

“I have other tattoos, too,” Claudia says, quieter now. “That aren’t quite as heart-wrenching.”

Rayla gives her a small smile and a slight laugh.

“Show them to me, sometime.”

Claudia’s heart jumps again. “I will.”

They sit there for a little while, and Rayla doesn’t say anything when a tear slides out of Claudia’s eye.

In turn, Claudia doesn’t mention the tears that escape Rayla’s.

 

\--------------------------------------------------

 

Four days had passed. Four nights, four sunrises, four noons. The stars had wheeled over their skies and clouds had rumbled over the lands again and again, and Claudia and Rayla are still hopelessly lost with no provisions and no way to find help. The only thing they had to guide them was the dangerously swollen Xotiko River, which was too treacherous to even think about nearing.

Hunger has been snarling in their stomachs for two days now as the cold numbed their skin and froze their bones. They are both exhausted and miserable, but they keep lifting their feet one step after another. The dried dirt that cakes their soles drags their feet down while the mud covering the land kept their feet suctioned to the ground.

Claudia could barely take another step, but the elf trudging miserably beside her had yet to falter, so she continues to walk, her thighs burning.

Sleep, on their miserable journey to finding wherever the others disappeared to, was hard to come by. Mud-covered hard rock floors and leaf covered ground weren’t the most comfortable places to sleep especially when the rain decided to make another visit in the middle of the night. Claudia’s eyes are heavy, weighed down with days of travel and sleeplessness.

“Claudia,” Rayla says, her voice much more alert than Claudia had been in days.

Claudia looks up, scanning the dense forest they were crossing for any sign of danger. “What is it?”

Rayla is standing perfectly still, the strands of rain-curled hair blowing in the breeze the only movement to be seen. “There’s a massive lake in front of us.”

Claudia looks up, squinting through the trees to see the familiar glint of sunshine on water. “Oh,” she says quietly. “Lake Kataniko.”

“Just how big,” Rayla begins, her voice small, “is this lake?”

Claudia winces. “Kind of… big? There’s a town on the northeastern shore. I know some people in it, we could get help within two days if we cross Kataniko.”

Rayla doesn’t move. “Could we possibly walk around it?”

Claudia sucks in a deep breath. “Technically, we could. But the problem is, the lake’s shore is about a thousand miles long, most likely longer. And if we’re right next to Xotiko River, we’re on the southwestern shore of Kataniko. It’ll take weeks, and the town there is probably the closest reliable human settlement.”

Rayla cringes, a resigned sigh leaving her lips. “How long will we have to be on the water?”

“About a day, maybe two at most. There’s a current that will carry us straight to the town from here, we won’t have to do much rowing. It’ll be a fast journey,” Claudia reassures her, stepping closer to her and gently placing a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll do everything I can to keep you out of the water, Rayla. I know how much you hate it, and I don’t want to ask you to do this, but I don’t think we have a choice. You’ve seen how treacherous these woods are; I don’t think we’ll be able to make it much longer without supplies.”

Rayla smiles up at Claudia hesitatingly, worry still tugging at her brows but the tension melted from her frame. She leans lightly into Claudia’s touch, tucking herself slightly into Claudia’s side. Claudia gives her a smile back, trying to be reassuring and comforting. She never wants to see Rayla make such a worried, frightened face again, much less return to the state she was in when she dragged them out of Xotiko River.

“We’ll be okay, Rayla,” Claudia says, clasping Rayla’s hand in her own, ignoring a furious blush that is threatening to burn across her face. Claudia forces her thumping heart to calm, but it defies her and continues to beat wildly.

Rayla doesn’t reply to that. Instead, she says in a small voice, “how are we going to get across?”

“Don’t worry. I’ve got an idea.”

Claudia picks up a massive, leathery leaf made of something strange, thick, and almost rubbery. The leaf is three times the length of her arm and just as wide. “What are these?” she asks, turning to Rayla. “Could we use them?”

Rayla’s nose scrunches up in thought. Claudia makes herself look away from the sight of her face like that; it does something to her heart that she doesn’t think should be happening.

“Maybe,” Rayla says. “If you have some way of sticking them together with your magic, they’d be good enough to make a raft with. These leaves have magic growing in their core, like any Xadian plant. They’ll be strong enough to resist some waves if you give them some help.”

Claudia grins and gets to work.

 

\--------------------------------------------------

 

The water rocks gently under them, gently luling the makeshift raft composed of the thick leaves, a couple strong branches, and a hasty spell Claudia had performed. Claudia watches Rayla’s brows begin to furrow as her hands tightly grip the side of the makeshift raft, looking shaken, but otherwise okay. Claudia’s rune, which she traced on the bottom of their raft, keeps them afloat. Hopefully, it will be alright for the entire journey- she’s not sure how long she can keep it up, but it’ll have to do.

Claudia moves to grab a paddle- a stick Rayla found and stuck a few other sticks to the end of- and Rayla lets out a small, frightened whimper as the boat rocks, but doesn’t move.

“Relax,” Claudia assures her. Rayla levels her with a glare.

“I am relaxed,” she says shortly. “It’s just- I really don’t like the water.”

“I know. But we’ll be fine. It’s just to get across the lake so we can get to the town, okay?”

Rayla doesn’t answer. Claudia sighs and puts the paddle in the water. Then, she starts to row.

The rain starts not long after.

Claudia curses at the shitty timing and Rayla closes her eyes tightly, seeming to try and calm herself down. Claudia tries to row a little faster, but it’s no use- it’s almost a day’s journey to the other side. The rain starts out small, the droplets cascading around them- too little to get them soaked, but enough to make it cold. Rayla looks helpless as she sits there, eyes closed, probably wishing away the storm with every fiber of her being.

Claudia’s heart squeezes painfully at the sight of Rayla sitting there, huddled and small in the corner of the boat. All she wants at that moment, the only thing in the entire universe that she desires, is to have Rayla be able to be her warm, happy self again, not a fearful shadow curled up in the corner of a shabby, sharply rocking raft.

When the rain starts to pick up, about an hour in, Claudia knows they can’t stay out here like this.

“We might have to turn back,” she shouts over the pounding of the rain. It hits her skin hard and leaves red marks that make her cringe. “We’re going to get sick like this!”

Rayla doesn’t answer.

And that’s when things start to go very, very wrong.

The waves snap and hiss, the angry waves catching the edges of the shaking raft and sending it careening back and forth like an out-of-control roller coaster. Claudia grabs ahold of one side of the raft, and reaches into the water, towards the rune she placed on the bottom. If she could change it, she could keep them steady and then make another rune to keep the water away from them-

Something bumps into the boat.

Claudia tumbles into the water- the last thing she hears is a hoarse yell before she’s completely submerged into the lake water.

Before she can swim to the surface, something grabs her leg and pulls.

Fuck.

She struggles, but whatever it is has a good grip on her leg- it isn’t phased by her efforts. Her ears pop and she’s losing air- she didn’t have much to begin with. Claudia’s going to end up fish food soon, and she doesn’t even have her magic to save her.

Great.

Maybe Rayla will make it to the town on her own. Find Soren and the princes. Restore peace to both the human kingdoms and Xadia.

White hair and lilac eyes flash in her mind as things start to get dark.

_Do great things, Rayla._

  
  


The thing lets go.

   

  
  


When Claudia breaks the surface, her lungs fill with air so alarmingly fast that she finds herself choking, flailing in the water as she tries to steady herself. Something grabs her arm and she panics, flailing even harder to get away, get away, get away, but it doesn’t let go.

“Claudia, Claudia it’s me- just stop flailing! We- we have to get on the raft!”

Claudia stops thrashing instinctively as Rayla’s hand drags her through the water.

She’s never been so glad to feel the leaf-raft under her.

The rain is still pouring, and Claudia shivers, breathing in deeply. Rayla’s moved somewhere, and Claudia just wants to lay down, Rayla sitting beside her, and sleep. Her lungs burn. Rayla’s talking to her, but Claudia’s not processing it correctly- all she can focus on is breathing.

A thought hits her.

“Where’s th..” she wheezes. “Where’s the thing that dragged me under?”

“What-”

There’s a wave and the sound of something breaking the surface, and when Claudia turns, she’s met with a giant, menacing eye.

A great monster was rearing out of Lake Kataniko, an ugly, brutish head covered in dark maroon algae facing them, the hooded, dull grey eye fixed directly on their raft. The bulbous creature had a long, narrow maw with scales that gleamed a pale, sickly yellow in the grey light. Fangs the size of Claudia gaped, strings of saliva dripping down from the fangs ringing the massive jaws.

As Rayla stands up, her feet braced against the churning raft and her knives clenched firmly in her hands, Claudia narrows her eyes and makes up her exhausted, desperate, waterlogged mind.

To Claudia’s horror, before she could do anything, Rayla vaults straight onto the monster’s head and begins to hack furiously at its skin, her knives flashing and stabbing.

Cursing frantically, Claudia scrunches her eyes closed and focuses on the core of her power, a deep, primal source that grows deep inside her, something covered with moss and old memories, something untouched and pure.

The world slows around her: quiet, muted, and dark save for a small flash of white and lilac jumping and vaulting, small exclamations escaping from her mouth occasionally.

A gentle, warm heat begins to burn on her back, the outline of a gracefully rearing unicorn emblazed across her skin beginning to flare and glow.

An old voice in a timber she had forgotten echoes in her mind, the words dancing across her vision and filling her with an indescribable feeling of nostalgia and loss.

( _“You have to take its life to live your own life, Claudia. You are a dark mage, you must complete your first kill.”_

_“Yes, it has to be a unicorn. What other creature has such power but a dragon? Its soul will serve you well.”_

_“Claudia, the tale of the dark mages has been the same since our beginning. Our first kill will be forever in our souls. The magic of the creature will stay with us until our soul itself departs, fuelling our magic and influencing every single one of our spells. You will be able to use its power only in the most desperate of situations, only when your own life is at stake, when you are in such peril that your magic knows you will certainly perish without aid. Of course, because you are performing such magic without magical components, a little of your life force will be drained every time you use the unicorn’s power. It will only take a small amount of time off your life.”_

_“No, it cannot be used even if someone else is in danger. Unless you loved this person more than anything you had ever loved before, unless you treasure them more dearly than you treasure your own soul, you will not be able to protect them with this power.”_

_“No, no, Claudia, don’t be irrational. You are not taking away a creature’s life for gain, you are merely bonding with it. The unicorn will be reborn again once you die. The only thing that will change is that it will possess a small fraction of your soul within it. You and this unicorn will be inseparable entities until your souls themselves dissipate and fade away.”_

_“How do you use this power?”_

_The voice pauses, hesitating._

_“You will most certainly know when the unicorn is calling you, Claudia. There is no way to mistake its urgings.”_ )

Claudia’s eyes snap open, her stomach heaving as the thick stench of heavy, stinging iron fill her nose and a warm, viscous liquid of brilliant scarlet coat her hands again, staining her fingernails for years and years no matter how much she tried to scrub the rusty color away.

There was another presence in her mind, something she had only felt once before, on that day in the forest when she had taken a dagger to the heart of the land’s purest creature.

Something warm and powerful encompassed her, certainty and confidence surging through her veins in a wave. The peace and clarity the unicorn brought calmed her, transforming her soul, taking its churning sea and turning it into a calm, glassy pool.

Claudia raises her hands, the skin on her back radiating a strange sort of heat that leaves the world fuzzy and distorted and its edges. Everything blurs, time passing in strange bursts, and all she knows at this moment is magic ripping through her veins like liquid fire.

And then it’s gone, leaving her without a trace of magic lingering behind. The power leaves her in a rush, letting Claudia drop to her knees in exhaustion.

Before her, the monster lay adrift and floating in the water, the mustard yellow scales slashed and torn in hundreds of deep lacerations caused by her magic. Rayla jumps back onto the raft, her knives still twirling and slashing, plunging deep into the monster’s heart.

The creature’s enraged thrashing stalls, the long, barbed fins flopping limply down, the ferocious jaw agape.

Claudia watches as Rayla whirls around, the raft rocking dangerously with the movement. The elf staggers over to where Claudia kneels, exhausted. There’s a look in Rayla’s eyes that sends shivers down Claudia’s spine, drawing her in.

Rayla sinks to her knees in front of Claudia, their eyes locking and never slipping away, their gazes as constant as the grey storms rolling through the fiercely billowing sky.

“Claudia,” Rayla breathes, the sound barely a hoarse whimper as her knees hit the raft. Her hands lightly grasped Claudia’s shoulders, holding her as if to make sure she was really there. Claudia leans into the touch, seeking comfort, and Rayla throws her arms around Claudia’s neck and tugs her closer. Her head falls onto Claudia’s shoulder, her cheek nestled against Claudia’s rain-splattered throat. Both of their chests are heaving, the shock of the battle barely beginning to drain from their systems.

“Rayla, Rayla,” Claudia murmurs, her voice raspy and shocked. She feels drained, but she finds the energy to wrap her arms around Rayla in turn. “You almost- You could’ve- no, no. Rayla, I almost lost you.”

Rayla raises her head to look into Claudia’s eyes again. Raw fear and desperation are mirrored on both of their expressions; the primal urge to protect each other was still coursing through them. Relief flows through Claudia’s veins at the realization that Rayla’s _okay_ \- they’re both _okay_.

Her power wasn’t supposed to protect others. But it protected Rayla. That’s all that matters.

_It protected Rayla._

Claudia lets a small smile edge onto her face, an unbelieving laugh escaping her lips.

“Aren’t I supposed to be saving you?”  She laughs quietly. “You’re the one afraid of water, yet you seem to be the one always saving me from it.”

A small, choked noise escaped Rayla’s throat, and then suddenly Claudia’s being kissed desperately, Rayla’s hands cupping her face with her cold, shaky hands. Rayla kisses her so fiercely, Claudia’s afraid their lips might bruise afterward. Still, she leans into the kiss and her hand tangles in Rayla’s wet hair- pushing her closer in an attempt to merge their faces together. Their noses are squished together, and it’s hard to breathe, but Rayla doesn’t care, she just wants to keep being this close to Rayla. Rayla apparently feels the same, because she doesn’t loosen her grip.

When she feels like she’s about to blackout, she pulls back and takes a deep, deep breath- trying to fill her lungs with as much air as she can. Rayla pulls her back in only a second after they break apart as if they’re magnets being pulled back to each other each and every time. Claudia’s hands thread through Rayla’s hair and Rayla’s hands travel down her back until they’re on her hips- pulling her closer and closer until Claudia is on Rayla’s lap, leaning down a little to make up for the new height difference. Claudia makes a noise of surprise, Rayla’s lips breaking into a smirk.

They keep kissing even as the rain starts to let up, setting Claudia’s veins on fire. Her heart is still pounding- whether from the experience they just had or from the feeling of kissing Rayla, she’s not sure anymore. She just knows it makes her feel breathless and windswept in the best way possible.

Claudia pulls away with a small, euphoric laugh and presses her forehead to Rayla’s.

“We’re alive,” she whispers.  

“We’re alive,” Rayla whispers in agreement. She pecks Claudia’s lips quickly. “I thought- I thought we were going to die. In the water. Like- like my biggest fear coming to life.”

Rayla’s shaking starts to grow more violent. Claudia’s hand slides from her hair to her back, rubbing soothing circles on her back.

Rayla smiles. “Instead, it just led me closer to you.”

Claudia’s grin is so wide, she could split her face open. “Kiss me again, you sap.”

Rayla does.

They kiss until Claudia’s limbs feel heavy and her eyes start to ache. They fall asleep in each other’s arms, their legs entangled, until the raft washes up on the opposite shore of Lake Kataniko as the sun’s fiery glow begins to pull its way through the dawn sky.

 

\--------------------------------------------------

 

“What…. on earth is that?”

Claudia pouts and holds up the toy in her hand. “Don’t you like it? It’s a human thing- they’re fun to mess with.”

The look on Rayla’s face says that she does _not_ think it’d be fun to play with. Claudia would be sad, but the look is so incredulous and horrified that it makes her snicker instead.

It had been almost two days since they had washed up on the shore after their exciting travels across Lake Kataniko. Upon arriving at the town- which, thankfully, was not that long of a walk from where they had washed up- Claudia found one of her father’s acquaintances there- a tavern owner named Kaiya, who kept tabs on the Xadian border for Viren. She let them stay in one of the rooms for free, offering them food and water and dry clothes. The room Kaiya had given them only had one bed, so they had fallen asleep in a heap, tangled in each other’s warmth yet again.

When Claudia wakes to sunlight streaming in on Rayla’s calm, sleeping face as she nestled into Claudia, she thinks that she wants to wake up this way every day.

Now, they were trying to find the place where Kaiya had claimed she had seen Soren and the princes- only, they kept getting distracted.

Claudia sighs dramatically and puts the toy back, giving it a sad, longing look. Rayla shakes her head, looking exasperated, yet amused. It’s not long before Claudia finds something else to pick up and show off to Rayla, trying to find something that Rayla would find especially interesting.

It’s not until they reach the weapons stand that Claudia finds it.

It’s simple, as far as weapons go, just an elegant blade with a black hilt and an accentuating emerald green strip.

It’s perfect.

Claudia picks up the dagger and smirks, holding it out to Rayla. “How’s this tickle your fancy?”

“Please never say that again- oh.”

Rayla stares at the dagger, seemingly entranced by it. She gingerly takes it from Claudia’s hand as Claudia watches on with a smile- inspecting the dagger with intense eyes. She’s so distracted that she doesn’t look up until Claudia turns to the seller and says, “We’ll take it.”

Rayla makes a noise like she did on the lake and lunges up to her, dragging Claudia into a kiss that leaves her weak in the knees. Claudia smirks into the kiss, threading fingers into Rayla’s hair, not caring that they were in a public place.

“Wow. So this is what you’ve been doing this whole time, huh?”

They break apart suddenly, shock coursing through Claudia’s veins.

From a couple feet away Soren smirks at them. Callum is covering Ezran’s eyes and trying to cover his own as Bait sits on top of Ezran’s head, unbothered. Claudia frowns at them, but Rayla’s cheeks are dusted with a pretty pink, which makes Claudia want to kiss them again. She doesn’t.

“There you are,” she says instead with a bright smile. “Glad to see you’re alive.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> we'd love to hear what you thought!!!!!!!


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